Norsk/Español/Suomi Langblr

Jo (jenova-amaranth). My side blog for language-related things. Please correct any mistakes I make in my target languages! :) Native: English (British). Current Focus: Norwegian (A2/B1) Spanish (A1) Finnish (A0/A1 - hiatus) Also Post About: Icelandic Old Norse Danish Swedish German Old English Dutch Read the "my languages" page for more information :) Duolingo/Memrise: jenova-amaranth

[karli-thunder]

might as well be their slogan (x)

[nordic-at-heart]

Do you ever just remember a Thing You Did Wrong from like five years ago that doesn't even matter and had no real consequences other than slight embarrassment and then you're like "alright then time to settle myself in for a night of self-loathing"

[sprachtraeume]

Tell me about the most beautiful place you ever visited and what you did there!

[nordic-at-heart]

I’ve been to many beautiful places over the years and it’s difficult to pick just one, but the most recent one that stands out in my mind was Costa Adeje in Tenerife. Black sand beaches, palm trees, clear blue skies, sunshine, palm trees, sea so clear I could see the bottom even when it was several feet deep… I was out there on holiday as my dad has a flat out there and it was the whole reason I started learning Spanish. I remember sitting out on the balcony, surrounded by the vibrancy of colour and the scent of salt-water and I just thought to myself, this is paradise.

Honourable mentions go to Gullfoss (Iceland), Whistler (Canada) and the Cornish coast (England)

[nordic-at-heart]

[nordic-at-heart]

While I'm here I'd also like to draw your attention to the university campus I live near because the woodland walk around the lake is fucking gorgeous

[sprachtraeume]

Tell me about the most beautiful place you ever visited and what you did there!

[nordic-at-heart]

I’ve been to many beautiful places over the years and it’s difficult to pick just one, but the most recent one that stands out in my mind was Costa Adeje in Tenerife. Black sand beaches, palm trees, clear blue skies, sunshine, palm trees, sea so clear I could see the bottom even when it was several feet deep… I was out there on holiday as my dad has a flat out there and it was the whole reason I started learning Spanish. I remember sitting out on the balcony, surrounded by the vibrancy of colour and the scent of salt-water and I just thought to myself, this is paradise.

Honourable mentions go to Gullfoss (Iceland), Whistler (Canada) and the Cornish coast (England)

[nordic-at-heart]

[sprachtraeume]

Tell me about the most beautiful place you ever visited and what you did there!

[nordic-at-heart]

I’ve been to many beautiful places over the years and it’s difficult to pick just one, but the most recent one that stands out in my mind was Costa Adeje in Tenerife. Black sand beaches, palm trees, clear blue skies, sunshine, palm trees, sea so clear I could see the bottom even when it was several feet deep... I was out there on holiday as my dad has a flat out there and it was the whole reason I started learning Spanish. I remember sitting out on the balcony, surrounded by the vibrancy of colour and the scent of salt-water and I just thought to myself, this is paradise.

Honourable mentions go to Gullfoss (Iceland), Whistler (Canada) and the Cornish coast (England)

[jonnoxvxrevanche]

Socrates said, “The misuse of language induces evil in the soul.” He wasn’t talking about grammar. To misuse language is to use it the way politicians and advertisers do, for profit, without taking responsibility for what the words mean. Language used as a means to get power or make money goes wrong: it lies. Language used as an end in itself, to sing a poem or tell a story, goes right, goes towards the truth. A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.

Ursula K. Le Guin (via linguisten)

[studyblr]

tag yourself: summer routine edition

icon: wakes up at 7 am, moisturizes, works out, loves smoothies and little new recipes, long summer to-do list, their summer self = best self

a lovely mess: wakes up after noon, doesn’t leave the house at all, listens to the same 5 songs, planned to do all these things but … meh

winging it: spends way too much money on books, late summer night walks, tries to be productive, forgets everything

softie: creates little summer playlists for their friends, the window is open all the time, tries to go to sleep at a reasonable time but fails every time

productive procrastination: is learning a new language during the summer, distracts themselves from the fact that the new term is starting soon, buys too many empty notebooks

[spanishskulduggery]

You know, I think I was a different person before I learned that para was just por + a linguistically. It was truly life changing

[ovanrie]

in Serbian, we don’t say ‘middle of nowhere’ - we use ‘vukojebina/вукојебина’ which literally would translate to ‘where wolves fuck’ and i’m so proud of my countries language

[stevviefox]

Yours is a language of understated beauty.  You have every reason to be proud.

[randomheroine]

In German we say “wo sich Fuchs und Hase Gute Nacht sagen” which translates to “where Fox and rabbit tell each other good night” and I think that’s really cute

[houseofthebattlegenie]

@inlanguagewedontsay

[inlanguagewedontsay]

In German we also say “am Arsch der Welt” which translates to “at the butt/ass of the world” when we talk about the middle of nowhere.

[stubborn-studies]

In Polish we say “zadupie” which means “behind ass” and I love it

[polyglotplatypus]

in french we say “le trou du cul du monde” which means “the world’s asshole” or “perpète-les-oies” which basically means “life-sentence-town”

[spanishskulduggery]

I’ve lost track of all the Spanish variations. My favorites are en el quinto pino “in the fifth pine tree” in Spain, or the more vulgar version en el quinto coño “in the fifth cunt”. Or if you’re in Latin America you might hear, donde el diablo perdió el poncho “where the devil lost his poncho”, or el culo del mundo “the world’s ass”.

[nordic-at-heart]

Omg I love these. We do also say “out in the sticks” or “the arse end of nowhere” in the UK, idk about other English-speaking countries

[chrisriddellblog]

Brexit.

[sprachtraeume]

meeting a new group of people

me: hi! so where are you guys from :D

normal people: I am from Russia/Brazil/Italy/Australia/etc :)

Americans, assuming studying the specific geography of their country was ever relevant to me: Oh I was born in iower but went to school in Oregano (My parents come from East Carolina though):~)

[polyglottraveler]

Someone finally said it it’s so annoying!

One day I was eating at a restaurant in Peru with the 3 guys who were volunteering with me and someone asked us where we came from. So I said France, the German guy said Germany, the Maltese guy had to say Italy because almost no-one in Peru knows where Malta is, and then the American guy said Portland, like he didn’t even specify the state he just thought everyone knew where Portland is 😤

[you-had-me-at-e-flat-major]

i can’t tell whether this is better or worse than

european: where are you from

american: i’m italian

european: omg same! da dove vieni?

american: wait what lol i don’t speak mexican i only speak english

and

european: where are you from?

american: (monolingual english speaker, white, never left Marietta, GA in 23 years of life) well i’m 1/5th irish, 1/7th german, 32% greek, 4/9ths native american, 1/12th swedish, a little bit filipino, my mother was a hamster and my father smelt of elderberries, but i just call myself african :)

[sprachtraeume]

i'm american but i rlly hate that like,, yeah we rlly are so centric to ourselves and it's gross and the government is Gross rn and like i've told my parents "hey ya know i'd rather be in like,,another country,, i dunno i'd go to england (a dream i've had since i was super young actually) and not come back" and my dad kinda got on me for not being happy with what i've got and being proud of the ideas of the country and i dunno man that's just me

just try to be more aware of the world outside of the US and try to avoid using US centric language online or to people who are not from america. Basically just expect others to know as much about your country as you know about theirs. The rest of the world shouldnt be required to learn about America’s specific issues when they don’t bother learning about ours

[nordic-at-heart]

Honestly anon England’s on fire rn I’d leave it a decade or two before you make that move lol

[nordic-at-heart]

Spanish Podcasts?

I’ve found it helpful for my Norwegian listening skills (and actually my speaking too) to have Norwegian radio or podcasts on in the background while doing housework - even if I don’t understand a whole lot, it really gives me a feel for the rhythm of the language and how certain words or phrases are used. I’d love to do the same for Spanish but I don’t know any radio stations or podcasts. Anyone got any suggestions? Mainland Spanish or Canary Isles is preferable but anything’s good really! :)

[nordic-at-heart]

Also I’ve had a bit of a rethink

I was planning on studying really hard over the summer so that I could jump ahead to stage 3 in Spanish because I’m told stage 2 is mostly revision of stage 1 with 2 new tenses and a bit of new vocab. I found stage 1 went too slowly for me and I’m more than capable of teaching myself new grammar, so I figured just learning those new tenses and some extra vocab myself would be more than enough to prepare me for stage 3. Honestly, I do still think I could do it, but I’m also like... there’s no rush, right? I’ve pushed myself through Norwegian and really it’s left gaps in my vocabulary and my speaking is atrocious. I’m great at reading it and I can write okay at like an A2 level but everything else is all over the place. Some vocab still won’t go in my head despite being on every vocab list I make.

So maybe it’s better I actually do stage 2. Yeah, I’ll have a headstart because I’ve basically finished the textbook and I might find it slow-going again, but I’ll also get to go back over that vocabulary I’ve powered through this summer, as well as probably learn extra. I mean, it’s better to learn a language slowly but learn it well than learn a load of topics and different vocab but then realise you can’t talk about the basic topics with any degree of fluency because of gaping holes in your vocabulary. Plus my speaking’s my worst thing (as always) and I’ve had zero practice over the holiday so I should probs practice level 2 speaking before I zoop ahead to stage 3 and end up paralysed by my lack of fluency lol.

[nordic-at-heart]

I am really in the mood to learn some German today

[nordic-at-heart]

And how is a post on Facebook credible when there's actual Bible translators? The Bible was translated into Greek by bilingual people who could interpret both the source language and their target language. I'm not saying there's no mistranslations in modern day Bibles, but this guy is assuming he knows more than actual scholars, which is hilarious.

I’m not sure what being translated into Greek has to do with the post given he’s talking about it being translated from Koine Greek/Aramaic into Latin and how Roman culture impacted on those translations and interpretations.

Like I said when I posted it, I don’t know much about Koine Greek or Aramaic or Latin myself. I know enough about Ancient Greek and Roman cultures to know there’s evidence for the differences in those cultures he referenced. I know enough about translation to consider the possibility a text was mistranslated due to those cultural differences - intentional or not. It’s really not uncommon for mistranslation (some deliberate, some not) to occur even in modern day society, never mind over millennia. Even the modern Bible has multiple translations and interpretations and translators don’t necessarily agree on things.

Additionally, I never got the impression he assumes he knows more than “actual scholars” (whatever that counts as?) - he’s putting forward his knowledge on a particular subject (one he’s clearly researched thoroughly) for others to interpret and comment on. If you read some of the links he provides in the original facebook post he goes into more details about such translations. Providing evidence to back up your view point doesn’t necessarily mean you think you know more than “actual scholars” - it’s simply an indicator you’ve done your research.

I’m open to criticism and education. If people come forward and suggest alternate translations or sources I can use to educate myself on, I’m more than happy to read up. I like to assume other people are open to such discussion too! But simply saying “I don’t think this post is credible” isn’t much of a discussion point. Of course it’s important to be critical, but without counter-evidence I don’t really have anything to work with.

[nordic-at-heart]

I found this post on facebook and it’s long, but it interesting. Not that I know much (or anything really) about Aramaic or Ancient Greek and the societies in which those languages were spoken. I’d be interested to know other people’s takes on this.

tl;dr: the Bible is massively mistranslated and misinterpreted, particularly regarding homosexuality and hierarchy, because Romans had issues.